Films that bring previously obscured truths about the political process to the attention of the public, showing for example how offices of public trust are used for private purposes.
BLOOD RUNS IN COLDWATER Titles at the end of the fictional Coldwater inform that there is no federal law regulating camps for delinquents, and state law enforcement is lax. When the film begins, macho Brad Lunders (played by B. J. Boudousqué) is arrested and taken to Coldwater, a camp in Colorado (actually filmed in the […]
SIDDHARTH LINKS CHILD LABOR WITH HUMAN TRAFFICKING Bollywood idealizes the high life of India. Not so Siddharth, directed by Richie Mehta. The film is a slice of life of the underclass in India. The story is about Mehendra Saini (played by Rajesh Tailang), who sends his 12-year-old son Siddharth from Delhi to work for a
THE LAST SENTENCE EXPOSES HOW A HITLER CRITIC WAS FINALLY CENSORED In a biopic about Professor Torgny Segerstedt (played by Jesper Christiansen), The Last Sentence (Dom över död man) reveals how his burning hatred of Adolf Hitler nearly got Sweden into war with Nazi Germany. With finely crafted editorials, he incurs the wrath of Hermann
WALKING WITH THE ENEMY IS A BIOPIC OF A HUNGARIAN JEWISH HERO The fame of Pinchas Rosenbaum (played by Jonas Armstrong) can now be shared with those who did not realize the heroism of someone who did everything he could to save the lives of Hungarian Jews in 1944 after Eichmann (Charles Hubbell) came into
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THE RAILWAY MAN IS A BIOPIC OF SOMEONE WHO DERAILS HIMSELF With talk of “war crimes” from Rachel Maddow in anticipation of publication of the report on “enhanced interrogations,” there is talk that the phony torture scene in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) will be cut. But there will be no such call in The Railway
BIOPIC CESAR CHAVEZ TRIUMPHS THROUGH NONVIOLENCE When Cesar Chavez (played by Michael Peña) was 11, he was an exploited grape picker in Delano, California, but he left for Los Angeles to learn about community organizing. When he returned, he had a vision of how to liberate farm workers, as portrayed in Cesar Chavez, directed by
OMAR EXPOSES LIFE ON THE WEST BANK AS NEVER BEFORE Under Israeli occupation, life in the West Bank is graphically displayed as in Omar, directed by Hany Abu-Assad. In his late teens, muscular Omar (played by Adam Bakri) has a girlfriend, Nadja (Leem Lubany), who is passionate about him; using knotted ropes, he has to
BETHLEHEM EXPOSES HOW ISRAEL COPES WITH TERRORISM Israelis have found a way to prevent and punish terrorists by cultivating “assets,” that is, Palestinian informants. In Bethlehem, agent Razi (played by Tsahi Halevi) befriends Sanfur (played by Shadi Mar’i), who is in his early teens and wants his father, Abu (Tarik Kopty), out of detention. Razi
THE MONUMENTS MEN PRESENTS AN EPIC TRUE STORY Despite Article 56 of the Hague Convention of 1899, which bans seizure of cultural property, Adolf Hitler planned to transfer art from Belgium, France, and the Netherlands to a museum in Germany. He believed that he could deprive those countries of cultural pride and thus any identity
IS AFTERMATH FOLLOWED BY ACCOUNTABILITY? One day in the year 2000 Frantisek Kalina (played by Ireneusz Czop) goes from Chicago to see his brother Józef (Maciej Stuhr) in a rural part of Poland, which he left in 1980. Józef’s wife and children have recently fled the country, but Józef inexplicably stays to continue wheat farming.